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Ethiopian Christian Persevered through Persecution and Now Runs an Orphanage and Prayer Ministry for other Persecuted Believers"Watch the time and pray; and try to stand up for your faith." Getaneh Getaneh was born and raised in Ethiopia. At age ten he tried to commit suicide, because he wasn't getting answers about life that he needed or for the many other questions he had. Getaneh said he attended a Coptic Orthodox Church where he heard teaching about God.
When he was 13, Getaneh heard about a Mennonite missionary in his hometown. "I went there for the first time, I heard the Word of God, I give my life to the Lord. When I go there my first imagination, my first thought, was they tell me this missionary is insulting St. Mary. I love St. Mary I was born on St. Mary day, my Christian name is named in her name, the plant of St. Mary. And I took a rock out of my pocket if they insult St. Mary to stone that missionary. "But things changed and I became a Christian. I went home late on that day and my Mom asking me why I came home late from school. I told her I went to chapel to study the Bible; and I told her I became a Christian. They asked me not to go back to the chapel or to the church. I said 'No, I'm not quitting.' They asked me not to read the Bible; I said 'I refuse.' Then they grounded me at age 13 for two years inside the house. They tried to put me in boarding school, but all the boarding schools at that time were run by missionaries and they didn't have any way to put me in the boarding school. Then, the only choice they had was to ground me inside the house." Getaneh said that during that time, a high priest came to baptize him. "Early in the morning in that two years the high priest came to our house from the church and baptized me with the water, with very, very cold water to cast out the religion spirit." Getaneh challenged his listeners that while this incident might make them laugh, they need to know and appreciate the freedoms they have here in America. "Yeah, maybe it will make you laugh, it's not fun, I let you know. And when you compare with the freedom what you have here and with the freedom what we have back home. And some of you are not willing, for example, to come to the chapel -- you don't like it, it's boring sometimes. But I will let you know we don't have this kind of freedom. No, we have only one theology college in our country now. We don't have Christian schools, we don't have a church. Our church is under the tree. We don't have these kind of comfortable seats -- our seats are dirt. I want to let you know how you are privileged, how you are blessed, praise God for this blessing and for this freedom. We choose to go to school here but we don't have the choice to go to school back home." Recounting how he became a Christian at age 13, Getaneh said that during the time his parents grounded him for two years, and the Lord did a big miracle in his family. "My Great Aunt one day asked me how to be delivered from that evil spirit. I didn't know what to do, I haven't prayed for sick people before. I didn't cast out evil spirit from people before. But I know the Word of God, which was given to me by American missionary, a small New Testament, which is given out by The Gideons. I have that New Testament, I read that New Testament more than twenty in my 'freedom house.' I call it freedom house because that is true. The only time I had freedom to read by Bible or pray was when I went to the restroom, the other time is not mine. Always I have somebody to control me or to watch over me. In that two years I read my Bible and I developed that intimacy relationship with almighty God and he helped me on that day to use Mark, chapter sixteen, the last chapter. It said that signs and wonders will follow you if you follow me. Don't follow the signs and the wonders, follow Jesus and then the signs and the wonders, the miracles, will follow you. I used that word literally and I prayed for my great Aunt and she was delivered from an evil spirit. (That's when) my ministry started. When my Mom and my Dad saw that miracle, they came to know the lord. The Lord opened the door for me." Getaneh asked how many think the freedom we have in this country is going to last long? "Do you think it's going to last long? (That) things have not changed throughout the years? I will tell you something -- don't think your freedom is going to last long. Prepare yourself. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow we don't have any right to preach about marriage in the church. Tomorrow, maybe we don't have any right to speak against abortion. Tomorrow, maybe we don't have any right to speak against homosexuality. You need to be careful. You need to watch out what's going on. Watch the time and pray; and try to stand up for your faith." (MORE. . .) Getaneh explained: "We lost our freedom. Communism came and took our pride, our freedom, from us in one night. We lost everything. They put the king in jail and they killed 66 people in one night and they buried them in one hole. They put us in prison, they burned our Bibles. "First they came to our farmhouse and the village area when we are praying and they took us and they put us in prison. They asked me if I'm working for CIA, because I accepted this Bible from an American missionary. I don't know where they buried my Dad even now. I don't know how he got killed. But what we know, we know one thing -- he's in glory. But we don't know where they buried him. I don't know where they buried my cousin. We have been in prison together. But I haven't seen her since that day. I know she's in Heaven." Getaneh said the Communists found him baptizing people at two o'clock in the morning at the riverside. "We don't have the freedom to baptize people openly like you do in your church, in your country. They caught me and they asked those people to deny Jesus. These people are new Christians, they haven't been in the Church a week or two week. They just came to know the Lord and they give their life to the Lord and they are asking me before leaving that area to baptize them. I brought them to the church, to the riverside, and there was somebody (present) who knows our secret, what we were doing. You know who is that? Do you think everybody who is singing 'Amen and Hallelujah' and praying is a Christian? Jesus Christ trained twelve people, he lost one. "Always there is a Judas in the midst of us. Our church deacon is the one who brought the security people to the riverside. And they asked those three new Christians who don't know their Bible, who haven't read their Bible, who haven't played the game that we play here in the church. They said 'No, we are not denying Jesus.' They got killed in front of my eyes. Their voice still the echo is clear and new on my ear what they said, 'In our blood the church will build. We love you. We pray for you.' They died there shouting this. I know they are in glory. I know they're in Heaven. I know one day I will see them. But here I am always thinking about them. "Here I am asking, 'Why I remain here, you know why I am here? I want to let you know there's a price to pay when you follow Jesus. Then my turn came they hung me upside down. They started to pour boiling oil over my feet. Let me ask you one question this morning. How many of you fry potatoes or chicken inside the kitchen? I know most Americans cook their own food. When the splashing oil touches your body how painful it is. It's painful; I was terrified. And I was ready to deny Jesus. But the Holy Spirit helped me to pray this prayer 'Lord God it's enough, take me home.' God said this 'I love people.' I want to let you know, God loves everybody. God loves people. I said the people who kill me, the people who kill my Dad, the people who kill me, the people who destroy the church, the people who burn the Bible, the people who mocking you, you love them? He said 'Yes, I love them. Tell them how I love them dearly how my blood is still running for them, to save them.' It's very difficult for me I ask God, 'OK, give me the strength and give me the joy.' Without joy you can't talk about Jesus. With sadness with murmuring you can't talk. And then the joy started to bubble from my belly. I start to tell them about Jesus. Two of them who persecuted me were very interested, they are asked me what drives me crazy. I started to tell them the same verse which Doctor Eshelman came to my homeland and told me: John 3:16, 'God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son.' Then they accepted the Lord in the prison. He showed me how He's powerful to change that rock-hardened heart and soften it and to accept Jesus Christ. This is your god and this is my God. Getaneh has been in the United States for 13 years and now runs a ministry called Watch and Pray International. "We are doing seven, twenty-four prayer. And the Lord called us to do an awakening to this nation to other nations. And then we are doing that and we are doing street evangelism also here. Besides that we have a ministry back home, which is raising orphans. We have orphanage in Ethiopia and we have ten evangelists, seven of them they came out from Islam religion. They are ex-Muslims and now they are working in the midst of their people. We are supporting them monthly by sending $100 USD and we are supporting now 43 orphans who lost their mom and their dad by aids, by famine. "In Ethiopia all and all we now have 4.5 million orphans, and we are helping just I think it's not even one percent we are supporting a little bit, not that much. The reason is we don't have enough money, we don't have enough budget to support more people. Now for example, last week our board chairman came from Ethiopia for our ministry and he mentioned that we have on the waiting list 52 children outside of the orphanage still sleeping outside, waiting just to come in and to get food and breakfast and. It's too difficult I can't talk about that." Getaneh said his ministry is open 24 hours a day for prayer requests. "We have more than seven hundred people throughout US who are praying with us, and who is praying for another people, for church and for persecuted Christians." He concluded: "Why I'm telling all of these things? Most people, they don't understand what kind of blessing God almighty give them to be born in America. They don't have any clue. Please don't abuse your freedom. Please pray for the persecuted church. Please, inform yourselves. Invite persecuted Christians to your congregation, to your church. In another country we don't have this kind of freedom. We have many orphans, we have many people who don't know Jesus Christ. We have 67 million people in Ethiopia. From 67 million people, we have only five million born again Christians. Please pray for us." Those who are interested in learning more about Getaneh's ministry may contact him by email at: Get_get@msn.com, by phone at 703-216-3458, or in writing at: Watch and Pray, P.O. Box 7332, Mclean, VA 22106
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"And when we are coming home we do not practice what they teach; we have idol worship inside the house. And I say 'OK, this idol is the one, or the god which they tell me the true god in the church? I have a great aunt, who was a psychic, a wizard, a witchcraft maker, what you would call in this country a fortuneteller; and we are worshiping her like god. That brought a big question in my life. And I have a friend also at school, who is a Muslim. Always he tells me if I'm not converted to Islam, one day I'm going to die. 
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